Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger reintroduces club suit

Arsène Wenger signs Lanvin, one of France's finest fashion labels, to tailor
Arsenal's new club suits

In a bid to maximise team spirit in his squad, Arsène Wenger recently decided to re-establish the tradition of wearing team suits - proper suits, not tracksuits - to games on match days.

The club announced on Wednesday Lanvin as its 'official tailor'. The star garment in this new Lanvin-made, Arsenal-issued formal uniform consists of an Arsenal-crested, notch-lapelled navy suit in Italian-spun wool. To complement it the club's first team players, who all visited Lanvin's Savile Row shop to be fitted, will wear white poplin shirts, Arsenal-red ties, navy cardigans (when the weather demands it) and shiny black shoes.

Lanvin's menswear designer, Lucas Ossendrijver, said that they have also been provided with red bow ties for events even more formal than an away trip to Stoke.

Although the suits will be officially unveiled at Arsenal's game against Southampton on Saturday, various players tweeted Lanvin-clad selfies before their 2-0 victory against Liverpool earlier this month - a fair indication that they approve. The club has released a besuited squad portrait that in which even Nicklas Bendtner looks slim, dynamic and poised.

The suits, while precision-tailored, are cut to a restrainedly conventional slim fit. Speaking from New York this week, Lucas Ossendrijver said: "what they needed was something elegant and dignified but which lets them move and not feel at all restricted. So we have made the suit as light as possible and given it a soft shoulder."

Arsenal's tie-up with Lanvin will last for at least two years - which means that as well as singing to their team-mates and discovering that London Colney is in Hertfordshire, any new signings will have to add a visit to Savile Row to their to do list. Ossendrijver confessed he wasn't sure why Arsenal chose Lanvin, and added: "I'm not really a sport person - I don't follow it - but I am often very inspired by it in my work. And of course I knew about Arsenal."

One reason might be that Wenger is already a customer: his favourite cardigans look rather Lanvin. And Vinai Venkatesham, Arsenal's sales and marketing director, suggested another in the club's press release: "The fashion house has a remarkable history and proud heritage, and is an institution in its field having opened in 1889, only three years after Arsenal played its first match."

Four decades ago George Best had his own tailoring label and kipper tied, flared trousered, two-piece ensembles were the uniform of choice for players on big occasion match days.

Now, FA Cup finals and World Cup flight photocalls apart, football players rarely wear formal tailoring to games, and there are few sponsorship deals between clubs and fashion houses - perhaps for fear they infringe on sportswear contracts with companies such as Nike, adidas and Puma (Arsenal's kit maker from next season).

Not long ago Chelsea had a deal with Dolce and Gabbana that saw the Italian house design the club's VIP lounge, but that is understood to have lapsed. So should other clubs note Arsenal's businesslike new Reservoir Dogs-esque elegance in their Lanvin and go looking for match day tailors of their own, it could usher in a new era of beautiful clothes for the beautiful game.